40 sedan bridge forum

Yup. Just double stick rubber tape all the way around the frame. Previous owner had done it and when I took his down there was a tape groove in the vinyl. So we put our own stuff up in its place. It does dress up the place versus just a blank vinyl wall.

 

Is there any increased risk of draining port and starboard , port is normally nicely isolated not being a house bank. so if the house drains starboard , emergency start from port is still there. Would not want to be in a situation with both banks drained , Murphy’s law that day the genny would not start

 

The logic seems sound. There's no apparent way for the port engine bank to be drained by anything other than a malfunctioning charger. So you could drain the thruster batteries all the way down, and the house batteries too, without affecting the port engine bank. Just don't get complacent about those port batteries!

I'm curious... why do you have an inverter, when you have a gen? Is that just so you can power AC devices without the noise of the gen? That's a lot of extra complexity, cost and space required just to avoid firing up the gen. What am I missing about the use of the inverter?

 

Has anyone ever relocated the Fresh water holding to Master berth, Looks like a large spot behind forward A/C.

Our previous 380 was located here and worked out good, trying to think of ways to make ER more accessible.

Jamie

 

What a great idea! It would help with trim and finally give access to the steering gear. However eyeballing it not sure the area is large enoughl

 

I wouldn't be against a smaller tank, we hardly use this one just didn't want eliminate it completely for resale purposes.
Probably have to move the fill and new hoses, alot easier to get at fresh water pumps too.

Jamie

 

Hi everyone Have anyone had to repack the rudders. I looked just can't see how to get back there!

 

Hence the post just two above. Imho the steering gear on the 400 is dangerously not accessible. I am searching for a way to cut an access panel either in the trunk or under the cockpit seat.
Another possibility is removing the batteries and chargers, then sliding the water tank to port, remove the gen water lift muffler on the starboard side and hope to crawl around the gen and tank. Not a part of anyone's weekly safety check.
Would like to hear if anyone has found a better way.

 

I have. On my 400DB and a buddies. Somewhere a bunch of years ago I posted the method I used on here. I'll try to find it.

Found the starboard side: http://clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/40-sedan-bridge-forum.53961/page-57#post-854316

And the port side: http://clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/40-sedan-bridge-forum.53961/page-59#post-855995

 

Thank you ZZ but I am still confused as removing the gen batteries or main batteries still has the steering gear blocked by the genny and the water tank. The pics show the view of a camera held under the water tank but dont think my skinny nephew could squeeze in there let alone do any wrenching,.
Glad you managed it. What did you use for packing and where you able to remove the old stuff? Both my packing and hydraulic ram are overdue.

 

I only packed the rudder glands. I didn’t need to access the steering linkage. I left what was in there and added two new rows of packing cord. Seven years later no leaks and no retightening.

 

Redoing all the boat seating. Tore apart the captains chair bolsters to replace its vinyl. Mounting bracket nice and yucky. So I gotta smooth that down and repaint it. Wood mounting piece nice and dry and soft. So gotta make new one if those too.

 

Thanks for reviewing the concept. I believe the ACR should prevent the port bank from ever draining at the hands of the inverter. It is supposed to sense a voltage drop on either bank and cut the circuit when that occurs.

The inverter works out pretty well for the weekends away from shorepower. When underway i dont mind running the generator except it seems excessive to have a third diesel engine running for minimal AC draw like my kids watching TV. When relaxing on the hook i like to keep the noise and fumes to a minumum, as we usually are hanging out on the swim deck and cockpit. It will run all the minor stuff like fans, TVs, fridge, wifi modem, eufy cameras, and charge devices all day with one or two brief runs of the generator to charge the batteries. And those runs usually coinside with cooking or showers when we need the gen anyway. The key to me though is the fridge draws from it first before switching to DC and the Stbd bank. That prolongs the charge and use of all the DC accessories like lights, stereo, water pumps, head system, underwater lights, hydraulic swim platform, davit, pumps for floaties, etc...my theory anyway...

 

A couple of things I noticed - first there is a mix of battery types which lends the charging and discharging unbalanced. Secondly the charger is way undersized for the job; it will be working it's little heart out constantly and ultimately failing early. The imbalance is probably what took out the battery. To charge multiple battery banks from an alternator you will need one of these - https://www.victronenergy.com/uploa...olators-with-alternator-energize-input-EN.pdf But, then again you'll be working a "stock" alternator until it overheats and fails; so, an upgraded high output alternator will be needed.

 

Thank you. Clarifying questions:
...by battery type mix; the 12v linked to the parralleled 6v sets will cause a charge/discharge imballance - makes sense and I also suspect that is contributing to the short 12v battery life. Potential solution to exchange the 12v for 2x 6v for the thruster?

...interesting option for isolator for the alt charge. Is the benefit of this over the ACR that it doesnt rely on a voltage drop to disconnect the circuit, as its always isolated? I did upgrade the alternators to 80amp (self exciting) from the original 50amps. Do you think that is enough?

 

I don't know what type the 12 volt battery is but it's amp hour capacity is probably quite a bit different (less) than the two large 6 volt batteries in series. So when the charger senses the 12 volt battery (or any battery) is fully charged it will go into float mode even though the 6 volt system is grossly under charged.
The detrimental part of this configuration is the 6 volt batteries will take a permanent memory of a lower fully charged voltage. You will never be able to charge and maintain those batteries to their full original potential. To further the issue - adding new batteries to a battery bank that is old and has problems will damage the new batteries also.
At this point it would be best to have the 6 volt batteries tested (check their Resting Voltage) to see if they would be compatible with a couple of new 6 volt batteries.
The difference between the Argofet and ACR is the battery banks are never tied together using the Argofet which isn't a bad thing to temporarily tie them together but not the best in a correct charge profile, the higher charged battery or when a charger goes into Bulk charge mode simply flows electrons (current) to the lower charged battery until that differential is reduced to a point the ACR opens up the circuit; this is not an optimum situation for different batteries. In a configuration using an ACR, you would want all of the charging on the largest capacity battery bank and let the ACR maintain the smallest bank (the starting bank). This brings a bit of a failure mode in where if the ACR should fail there is nothing to recharge the start bank. The Argofets will help resolve this.
Actually, to really do this system correctly I'd add the Victron Argofet to both of the engine alternators and charge that house bank from both alternators yet separately take care of the engine start banks. Lastly, for that house bank, I'd recommend a good inverter charger (maybe you already have that) so those batteries have a full function high amperage charge profile.

 

Thank you! Very good points and guidance. I appreciate it.

 

Port sofa storage.
Has anyone found a way to access the area under the port sofa with motor mechanism to use that area for storage? It would be great to store rolled cockpit curtains etc. there but there does not seem to be way to either lift the seat or the side panel.

 

The lower kick panel has about 8 screws holding it to the bottom front lip of the sofa. Mine was removed and laying under the sofa for some reason when I purchased her.

 

I’ve had that sofa bottom off many times. First remove the lower panel. Three screws hold mine up to the underside of the sofa. Then 6 screws hold the sofa bottom to the frame of the sliding mechanism. Remove those then lift the sofa bottom off. All screws are easy access. Then clean the area because it will be loaded with dust. There are also two screws buried in the carpeting that hold the baseboard against the sofa frame. Remove those if you just want to slide low profile stuff in and out without removing the sofa bottom.